THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Wide World
NEW YORK WELCOMES RETURN OF FLIGHT HEROES
Rain failed to dampen the ardor of Gotham's acclaim of Commander Byrd and his coura
geous crew, when they arrived together on the Leviathan, July 18, 1927. They proceeded up
Broadway to City Hall, where they were officially greeted amid the cheers of thousands of
people.
30 miles an hour by flying at about a two
mile altitude.
The air navigator of the future will be
in constant touch by radio, and there will
be radio stations to give him accurate in
formation of weather all along the route,
so that he can alter his course to get the
maximum advantage from the wind.
He will have flares, which will ignite
upon hitting the water, for getting his
wind drift at night, and he will have pow
erful candle parachute flares which will
light up the surrounding country in case
of a necessary landing at night.
We believe that the America possessed
all the essential qualifications in itself for
a safe transatlantic flight. What must
be done now is to build a similar plane of
twice its size, establish a meteorological
organization, and provide large concrete
take-off and landing fields and radio bea
cons and direction-finding stations all
along the land part of the route, especially
at the landing base. When this is done,
I would not hesitate to take with me across
the Atlantic my closest friends or rela
tives.
We feel that our fight with the ele
ments and our labor and preparation are
well worth while if we, even in a small de
gree, helped the progress of aviation and
international good-fellowship.
*
~b~4~9I
368